Horticultural production down

Zimbabwe’s horticultural producers have said that earnings for this year were expected to decline by nearly 30 percent because of the disruption of production at farms occupied by war veterans, heavy rains that fell over most of Zimbabwe and the current fuel and foreign currency shortages.

An industry spokesman told ‘The Financial Gazette’ there had been a massive slowdown in plantings of vegetables, largely blamed on the uncertainty caused by the invasion of about 1,500 commercial farms by the independence war veterans and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party in the past four months.

Meanwhile, the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) said this week five farms belonging to its members had been seized by self-styled independence war veterans at the weekend in a development which the CFU feared could mark a widening of the illegal occupations ahead of the election.

CFU director David Hasluck said: “The veterans have also gone to the extent of demanding from farmers transport to ferry people to ZANU-PF rallies.” The newspaper said the latest invasions followed a speech by Mugabe last week in which he said he was eyeing all white-owned commercial farmland and that the seizures would be intensified after the elections.